Forms of Extinction

This work is a response to the scrimshawed whale teeth in the Halloran Collection. Scrimshaw is a disappearing art form. Whaling was banned in 1986 because of the extreme depletion of whale species. And so the basic products used for scrimshaw, the teeth, tusks and baleen, became scarce. The whaling way of life also became virtually non-existent and so the whaler/artists who would produce the work are also disappearing. This artwork is about all of these disappearances. I have engraved ceramic ‘teeth’ with a kind of scrimshaw, showing images of some of Australia’s extinct animals, and on the back, their common name and accepted date of extinction. Altogether, this work becomes an ode to the things that have passed away due to humanity’s exploitation of the natural world.